Comparative Austronesian Dictionary: Kilivila

2. The phoneme inventory

The phoneme inventory of the Kilivila language includes 19 consonants, five
vowels and six diphthongs, viz. p, 6, t d, k, g, m, n, p"^, b"^, k"^, g"^, m % r, 5,
Pf h w, y; i, u, e, o, a; ai, an, ei, eu, oi, ou. Also stress may have phonemic
status. These phonemes are tabulated below.

Ralph Lawton 749

Table L Consonants

Labialised Bilabial

Alveolar

Velar

Labialised

bilabial

velar

Stof^

vl p^

P

t

k

J^W

vd b"^

b

d

8

r

Fricatives

P

s

Nasals

m^

m

n

Laterals

1

Flaps

r

Semivowels

w

y

Table 2. Vowels and diphthongs

Front Central

Back

High

J

u

Mid

e

Low

a

High

Mid-close

Cl

o^

Mid-open

eu

oi

Low

ai au

The general feature of labialisation on all stops and nasals articulated at front
and back extremes of the oral cavity may be seen in the above tabulation.
This manifests as a rounding on the final margin of the phoneme, and is
demonstrably of phonemic status in contrast with the unrounded forms:

ba-la wa b^ala,

*I will-go to house.'

tama-ma tama-m^a

*the father-of us two' (excl dl) 'the father-of you (pi)'

pa- p'^a-

*rigid flat piece' 'anything rotten'

(classifier) (classifier)

Lawton, Ralph. 1995. Kilivila. In: Darrel T. Tryon (ed.) Comparative
Austronesian Dictionary. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.